Baywatch....but no Pamela Anderson i'm afraid

Baywatch is a simple application that basically goes "BID NOW!" when an auction is close to ending so you never miss out on that pink tricycle again....or any other thing you care to bid on...

It converts an eBay auction into an iCal event that then reminds you of the item and when it's about to end. Customisable and free, what more can you ask for?

http://www.littleapplescripts.com/baywatch.html

Give It A Finger....Or Two

Just a quick info post, for scrolling down webpages or long articles you can enable it by going on Apple (in toolbar) > System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > 'Use two fingers to scroll',

Then try it out on a website, just place two fingers on the mouse and pull down slowly or push up.

A simple feature that speeds things up a litte i find

Enjoy,

Merry iPod

Yes that's right i further appled myself with the toy that everyone has/wants, an iPod. A little black 80gb video one.

So for this mid christmas-new year post i'm going to talk about moving music to and from an iPod.

Music on Mac/PC -> iPod -- Nice and simple, drag and drop it from the main Music area to your little iPod in the sidebar.


iPod -> Mac -- little more tricky...

that's where, iPodTrans comes in.

<- (not my music folder incidentally), this allows you to play music directly from the iPod on the Mac (saving space if you are short on it).

Select where to save the mp3's (in a new folder on the desktop to begin with i suggest). Select the files from the browser, then click 'copy selected songs'. A down side is that there is no confirmation that the files have copied over but you can go check in the folder you assigned to save them to.

Now look at the filenames, what a mess, probably random numbers or names that don't make sense.

This is where iTunes comes in handy to sort it neatly into Artist > Album > Song, sections.

Go into iTunes preferences and make sure 'keep my itunes music folder organised' is selected and 'copy itunes music to the itunes library...' is selected also (under 'Advanced').

Then simply add your strangely named files which have been copied over. iTunes will now sort them all out neatly and voila, a mirror image of your iPod music.

Free at:- http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/18621

Thanks to 'cardo' for tips on how to organise it all after transfer.

Enjoy and hope you all had a Merry Christmas

img2icns - usful4mac

Yes img2icns is a handy little tool. Simply drag an image file over to it and voila in a few seconds you have a conversion of that image that can be used as an icon to replace one for an application in the dock.

Note:- When you have converted the files, go into the finder and find the application you want to change the icon for, click Get Info, then drag the newly changed image file into the top left box (where the current icon is showing). Then simply replace it on your dock and voila, a new look icon.

Download img2icns here

Nice icons at WinCustomize (don't be put off by the 'Win' reference), go into 'Object Dock'

Maximise Damn You!

Ok so Mac has this little annoying thing built in that when you click maximise on a window, it well....doesn't.

It goes so far but wont take up the entire area like Windows does....

Frustrating? yes!, hence i went in search of a solution.

Stoplight allows you to set it so that it will maximise the window across the screen. It also can make it so that when you close a document, such as a word document, it will close the entire program instead of leaving it running until you click quit.

This is another Windows behaviour that you may wish to bring over to the Mac...enjoy

Free Download

Ooooh That's My gDisk Spot!

gDisk is a beautifully simple way of moving data from one place to another (from uni to home or to the office etc). It uses your Google Mail or Gmail account which has over 2gb of space thus giving you plenty of file upload capabilities.

When running it even links you accross to create a Gmail account, if you don't already have one.


Being a photographer i will be using the Gmail account as a backup for the most important photographs most likely.

Simply click 'Upload' to add a file to the account and then 'Download' at the other location to get the file back.

Nice and simple, free 2gb of space, can't complain at that!

http://gdisk.sourceforge.net/

Mail Gets Hotter

Excuse the title....i'm tired and running low on idea, so anyway Hotmail plugin for Mail (default email application in Mac) allows you to check your Hotmail emails within Mail. Saving valuable seconds it would take to go to hotmail.com and login

Nice and simple little plugin that's easy to configure and works for me.

http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/10842

What's Going On?

Well this highly configurable widget can be plugged into your dashboard and sits in several different styles and colours to display your computers stats. Memory usage, disk space, ip number etc etc.

Basically it's nice to know how much space you have, and other information at the stroke of the F12 key.

Free at: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html

Keep Me Posted

Don't you love it when things work?

Like how you can make the Dashboard in Mac (press F12 if you haven't already and be shocked at hidden gems) have new little gizmos etc. Think i'll take some time to pimp my dashboard out and recommend some bits whilst im at it.

Firstly i like all my news and updates in one place. None of this site to site, filtering through rubbish trying to find a good story etc.

This is where RSS feeds come in. Google it if you don't know what RSS is. It will pull in stories and keep updated so you can stay up to date.

This little widget for the dashboard can be customised with whatever feeds you want from sites such as CNN, AbsolutePunk (music) etc etc.

Nice and free at:- http://www.benkazez.com/newsreader.php

The Mac Logos TRUE Origins

http://static.flickr.com/46/144300100_0b0cb45151.jpg?v=0

May Mac Be With You

This little app turns your Mac into a Lightsaber and moving it around makes various sounds go off (basically tilt it about a bit to change the speed of striking or the sound of the 'macsaber')

Enjoy.

Free - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21732

MacSaber in action - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK4AonfnFaM (not advised to do this with such ferocity as it may break the machine)

Tilt With Lilt

Apologies for the terrible title to this post...

Anyway, now if you have a fancy MacBook or even most (i believe) models of iBook etc, basically laptop version of Macs then you should be able to use this program.

Lilt allows you to set the machine to sense tilts in the screen or actual body (such as you physiclly lifting and tilting it left) to set off various actions. These can include opening documents or shutting down for example. Lilt can also work with lighting to detect lighting changes and act on them accordingly (altough i couldn't get the lighting sensors to work)

Free to try, $5 to buy - http://www.jonn8.com/lilt/

Tracking Leopards

Welcome to Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard (image shown is not the actual OS). Vistas rival basically.

Set to release just after Windows Vista (around spring 2007) both have found their way onto the net in some form and oppinions can be found just by googling either.

For more info on the new OS from Mac, go to http://www.leopardtracker.com/

In related tracking information...

I reference links from versiontracker and macupdate a lot. Just a quick info post really to suggest doing what i've done today and join VersionTracker for free so that when you download an app you can be updated for free when a new version is available.

MacUpdate can't be joined (that i can see) so i suggest adding the RSS feed to your bookmarks (personally i have it on my Firefox browser toolbar so it's easy to click and access)

www.macupdate.com

http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/